Racing without teammates, Johansson spent the majority of the 124km race off the front, first with Moa Johansson and then solo for the final 50km.

“I’m more than happy, I’m relieved,” Johansson said after the race. “With all my other results, it might not make sense that this is a really important one for me, but it is.”

The victory is Johansson’s 12th Swedish championship – five in the road race and seven in the time trial.

“It’s one thing to win the time trial, but this is even better,” she said. “There are more things that come into play here – tactics, technical difficulties, luck. “

Initially part of a three-ride break that was brought back by the peloton, Johansson then surprised her main rivals by bridging across to a solo move by Moa Johansson.

“The first time up the hill, three of us rode away,” Johansson said. “It was me, Sara (Mustonen-Lichan) and Hanna (Nilsson) – the three on the podium today and actually the three on the podium at the time trial, too. But the peloton caught us back.

“I attacked before the hill started (on the second lap),” she continued. “Sara and Hanna were out of position. I think they were surprised that I attacked when I did. It was much earlier than I went on the lap before. I rode really hard the whole hill and I caught Moa on the hill.”

Johansson eventually dropped her breakaway partner as the rest of the peloton were left to fight for the final podium spots.

“(The peloton) never caught any more time on me. It was 1:40, 1:50 all the way to the finish line on the last lap. I was sort of sure about the win when I came in for the little laps, but I didn’t know it until then.”